Lourdes, France

Summary

At the Grotto of Massabielle, the Virgin showed herself 18 times to Bernadette Soubirous. Under the title "the Immaculate Conception," she called for penance and prayer for the conversion of sinners.

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Jan 7, 1844	Bernadette Soubirous is born the first of four children in a financially ruined family from a small town in the Pyrenees mountains in France. She was the eldest of six children of Francis Soubirous and Louise Caserot.
Feb 11, 1858	Bernadette first encounters Our Lady in a golden cloud and prays a Rosary in her presence at the grotto. Her sister Marie told their mother all about the incident and her mother forbade Bernadette from returning to the grotto.
Feb 14, 1858	Bernadette and her sisters finally persuade her mother to let her return to the grotto. She encounters the Virgin again but the commotion the other children cause makes her mother inclined not to let her return
Feb 18, 1858	Two influential ladies, Madame Milhet and her seamstress, Antoinette Peyret, request a visit to the grotto with Bernadette in order to obtain the name of the appearing woman. Our Lady asked her to come another 15 times and promised her happiness not in this world but the next.
Feb 19, 1858	Bernadette's mother accompanies her to the grotto.
Feb 20, 1858	The Lady teaches Bernadette a secret prayer which she recited the rest of her life.
Feb 21, 1858	Bernadette is accompanied by large crowds and in particular, Dr. Pierre-Romaine Dozous, the town's most eminent doctor. He evaluates her conditions and announces that there is no indication of "nervous excitement".
Feb 22, 1858	Despite being told she was imagining everything by the imperial procurator and being called a liar by the police who threatened to imprison her, Bernadette shows up at the grotto but does not encounter Our Lady.
Feb 23, 1858	Our Lady appears to Bernadette and gives her "three wonderful secrets" which have never been revealed.
Feb 24, 1858	Our Lady stresses "Penitence" at the next apperance.
Feb 25, 1858	Bernadette is commanded to bathe in and drink from the fountain. Since there was no fountain there, Bernadette digs up some gravel and reveals a pond which she then drinks from and washes her face. This stream instantly becomes a source of healing for visitors to the grotto.
Feb 26, 1858	Bernadette is asked to "kiss the ground on behalf of sinners".
Feb 27, 1858	Bernadette is asked to tell the clergy that they should build a chapel at the grotto.
Mar 1, 1858	Bernadette is told that the people should come in procession to the chapel.
Mar 4, 1858	Twenty-thousand people gather at the apparition site. No sign is performed despite the request of the parish priest, Abbe Peyramale, to have a rosebush bloom in winter.
Mar 25, 1858	On the Feast of the Annunciation, Our Lady identifies herself: "Que soy era Immaculado Conceptiou" ("I am the Immaculate Conception")
Apr 7, 1858	Dr. Dozous observes Bernadette putting her hand through the flame of a candle without feeling pain or getting burned during ecstacy.
Jul 16, 1858	Bernadette receives a final invitation to meet the Lady at the Grotto.
July 4, 1858	Bernadette sees the Lady for the final (18th) time.
1858	Bernadette goes to study at a hospice run by the Sisters of Nevers.
July 18, 1858	An investigative commission is established.
Jan 18, 1862	The Bishop of the Diocese of Tarbes declares the apparitions to be authentic.
July 4, 1866	Bernadette leaves Lourdes for the final time to join the Sisters of Nevers. She is given the name of Sister Mary Bernard and worked there as sacristan and avoided publicity as best she could. She referred to herself as "a broom which Our Lady used, but now I have been put back in my corner."
1876	The Basilica at Lourdes was consecrated.
April 16, 1879	Bernadette dies at age 35 and is buried in St. Gildard Convent in Nevers.
1890	The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was established for February 11 approved by Pope Leo XIII and first granted to the Diocese of Tarbes in the year
Nov 13, 1907	Pope St. Pius X proclaimed that it be observed throughout the universal Church.
1925	Her body is exhumed and found to be incorrupt. She was beatified in 1925 by Pope Pius X
Dec 8, 1933	Bernadette is canonized a saint by Pope Pius X on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Sept 12-15, 2008	Pope Benedict XVI makes a pilgrimage to the Lourdes for the 150th Anniversary of the apparitions. Homily

Messages

Click here to read the messages of Lourdes .

Description of the Virgin

"She has the appareance of a young girl of sixteen or seventeen. She is dressed in a white robe, girdled at the waist with a blue ribbon, which flows down all along her robe. She wears upon her head a veil which is also white; this veil gives just a glimpse of her hair then falls down at the back below her below her waist. Her feet are bare but covered by the last folds of her robe except at the point where a yellow rose shines upon each of them. She holds on her right arm a Rosary of white beads with a chain of gold shining like the two roses on her feet."

Miracles and Signs

In 1859, Professor Vergez of the Faculty of Medicine at Montpellier was appointed to examine the cures. Seven cures were recorded before 1862 promoting the argument for the recognition of the Apparitions by Bishop Laurence. Over 5,000 cures have been documented at the waters of Lourdes. The Church has vigorously investigated and validated 67 of them.

Click here to view a list and description of all 67 cures.

Approval

After a 4 year investigation commission, the bishop of the Diocese of Tarbes declared on January 18, 1962: " We judge that Mary Immaculate, Mother of God, really appeared to Bernadette Soubirous on February 11, 1858, and on subsequent days, eighteen times in all. The faithful are justified in believing this to be certain."

Read about the Establishment of an Investigative Commission July 28th, 1858

Read the Report of the Episcopal Commission from January 18, 1862

The Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes is February 11th.

Prayers

O Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, you are the refuge of sinners, the health of the sick, and the comfort of the afflicted. You know my wants, my troubles, my sufferings. By your appearance at the Grotto of Lourdes you made it a privileged sanctuary where your favors are given to people streaming to it from the whole world. Over the years countless sufferers have obtained the cure for their infirmities -- whether of soul, mind, or body. Therefore I come to you with limitless confidence to implore your motherly intercession. Obtain, O loving Mother, the grant of my requests. Through gratitude for Your favors, I will endeavor to imitate Your virtues, that I may one day share in Your glory. Amen.

Books

Barbier, Jean. Pour vous qu'est-ce que Lourdes?: 75 personnalités répondent: interview. Paris: P. Lethielleux, 1976.

Belleney, Joseph. Les apparitions de Lourdes. Paris: Maison de la Bonne Press, 1941.

Bettega, Victor. La grande aventure du pelerinage de La Salette de 1846 a nos jours. Grenoble: [s.n.], 1984.

________. Guerisons de Lourdes. Paris: Centurion, 1955.

________. Saint Bernadette, shepherdess in Christendom. Lourdes: Salle Jeanne d'Arc, 1948.

________. Sainte Bernadette, bergers en chretiente. Paris: Maison de la Bonne Press, 1936.

Benson, Robert Hugh. Lourdes. St. Louis: Herder, 1914.

Bernardo, Antonio. Lourdes ieri, oggi: [guida del pellegrine per meglio conoscere Lourdes]. Rome: Opera Romana Pellergrinaggi, n.d.

Boissarie, Prosper Gustave. Heaven's recent wonders: The work of Lourdes. Ratisbon, NY: F. Pustet Co., 1909.

Cabes, Andre. Marie, chemin de source vive: le message de Lourdes. Paris: Le Chalet, 1987.

Carrel, Alexis. Journey to Lourdes. London: Hamilton, 1950.

__________. Podrz de Lourdes: oraz fragmenty dziennika rozmyslania (Voyage de Lourdes) . London: Veritas, 1954.

__________. The voyage to Lourdes. New York: Harper, 1950.

Cranston, Ruth. The miracle of Lourdes. New York: Image Books, 1988.

__________. The mystery of Lourdes. London: Evans Bros., 1956.

Cirrincione, Msgr. Joseph A. with Thomas Nelson. The Forgotten Secret of Fatima and the Silent Apostoloate. Rockford, IL: TAN Books, 1988.

Deery, Joseph. Our Lady of Lourdes. Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1958. Duplessy, Eugene. The attack on Lourdes. London: Burns, Gates and Washbourne, 1935.

Duplessy, Eugene. The attack on Lourdes. London: Burns, Gates and Washbourne, 1935.

Husenbeth, Frederick Charles. Our Blessed Lady of Lourdes: a faithful narrative of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the rocks of Massabelle, near Lourdes, in the year 1858. London: R.& T. Washbourne, 1915.

Huysmans, J. K. The crowds of Lourdes. London: Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1925.

Imbert-Gourbeyre, Antoine. La stigmatisation: l'exaste divine, et les miracles de Lourdes: response aux Libres-penseurs. Clermont-Ferrand: Bellet, 1894.

Lapple, Alfred. Lourdes. Augsburg: Pattloch, 1988.

Laurentin, René. Les apparitions de Lourdes, récit authentique, illustré de documents de l'époque. Paris: P. Lethielleux: Lourdes Oeuvre de la grotte, 1966.

Bernadette of Lourdes: a life based on authenticated documents. Minneapolis, MN: Winston Press, 1979.

Der Sinn von Lourdes. Luzern: Verlag Raber & Cie, 1958.

Het leven van Bernadette. Brussel: K.W.B.-K.A.V.- Lourdesbekevaarten, 1979.

Meaning of Lourdes. Dublin: Clonmore and Reynolds, 1959.

Mensaje de Lourdes. Madrid: Ediciones Stadium, 1958.

Resalta di Lourdes. Second ed. Torino: Marietti, 1957.

Sens de Lourdes. Paris: Lethielleux, 1955.

Vida de Bernadette. Barcelona: Herder, 1980.

Vie de Bernadette. Paris: Desclee De Brouwer, 1978.

Vita di Bernadette. Roma: Edizioni Boria, 1979.

Mard, J. Historya miejsca cudownego Lourdes. New Britain, Conn.: Czcuibjanu "Przewodnika Katolickiego", 1909.

Neame, Alan. The happening at Lourdes; the sociology of the grotto. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967.

Schott, Arthur. Die Wunder von Lourdes. 7th ed. Erie, PA: M. Barth, 1895.

Sharkey, Don. After Bernadette: the story of modern Lourdes. Milwaukee: Bruce Pub. Co., 1945.

Trochu, Francois. St. Bernadette Soubirous: 1844-1879. Tan Books & Publishers (June 1985)

Vallet, Auguste. Mes conferences sur les guerisions miraculeuses de Lourdes. 4th ed. Paris: P.Tequi and Fils, 1937.

Werfel, Franz. Pisnia pro Bernadetu. Buenos-Aires: Vyd-vo Mykoly Denysiuka, 1956.

Articles

Zenit News. BENEDICT XVI TO JOIN CELEBRATIONS AT LOURDES. Nov 13, 2007

Yahoo News. Catholics mark 150th anniversary of Lourdes apparitions. Dec 8, 2007

Links

Official Lourdes website